excite our astonishment; but this will be increased if we compare the present number of inhabitants with that of ancient times. Strabo says, that the territories of Jamnia and Joppa, in Palestine alone, formerly could bring forty thousand armed men into the field. At present they could scarcely furnish three thousand. The people have a serious, nay even a sad and melancholy countenance. All joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone. The Syrians are strangers to social enjoyment. Good cheer would infallibly expose them to extortion, wine to corporeal punishment.-Keith: "Fulfilled Prophecies.'

"THORNS shall come in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof." In Idumea each wandering Arab carries a pair of small pincers to extract the thorns from his feet. "I will make thee small among the nations; thou art greatly despised." The public authorities at Constantinople, when asked for a firman, or letter of protection to a traveller, to visit the ruins of Petra, once the capital of Idumea, denied all knowledge of such a place. "Shall I not destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of the mount of Esau ?" Sir Isaac Newton traces the origin of letters, astronomy, and navigation to the Edomites. The book of Job is a splendid and lasting proof of the eloquence that pertained to Edom. But so entirely has understanding departed from the mount of Esau, that the wild wanderers who now traverse it, consider the remains of antiquity as the work of genii! To clear away a little rubbish, merely to allow the water to flow into an ancient cistern, is an undertaking far beyond the views of the wandering Arabs. They cherish sentiments the most superstitious and absurd; " Wisdom is no more in Teman, and understanding has perished out of the mount of Esau."Keith: "Fulfilled Prophecies."

NINEVEH, the mighty capital of the Assyrian empire, was a very extensive and populous city. Its walls were 100 feet in height, 60 miles in compass, with 1500 towers, each 200 feet high. A Greek historian, who repeatedly alludes to an ancient prophecy concerning it, as known to the Ninevites, relates that the Assyrian army was suddenly assaulted by the Medes in a time of festivity, when unable to resist the enemy. A great part of them were destroyed; and the river, having increased to an unexampled height by rains, broke down a great extent of the wall, opened an entrance for the enemy, and overflowed the lower part of the city. The King, in his desperation, deeming the prediction was accomplished, heaped an immense funeral pile, and having set fire to it and to the

palace, was consumed with his household and his wealth; and the Medes carried away many talents of silver and gold to Ecbatana.-Nahum i. 8-10; ii. 6, 8, 9; iii. 13-15.-Keith : "Fulfilled Prophecies."

SEVERAL of the best Greek and Roman writers describe the ancient greatness of Babylon at different periods. All agree in relating its wonderful magnificence. Herodotus, who lived two hundred and fifty years after Isaiah, wrote from what he saw and examined. The walls of Babylon, before their height was reduced to 75 feet by Darius Hystaspes, were about 300 feet high; they were 75 feet broad, and 34 miles in compass. The temple of Belus 600 feet in height; the artificial hanging gardens piled in successive terraces as high as the walls, the embankments which restrained the Euphrates, the hundred brazen gates, the palace built by Nebuchadnezzar, eight miles in compass; and the artificial lake, the circumference of which was far more than a hundred miles, and its breadth, by the lowest account, 35 feet; all displayed many of the mightiest works of mortals concentrated in a single spot. Concerning the size of Babylon, Herodotus and Xenophon relate, in exact accordance with what Isaiah and Jeremiah had foretold, that the Medes and Persians, united under Cyrus, prophesied of by Isaiah above one hundred years before he was born, came against Babylon and besieged it; that the Babylonians, enclosed within their walls, remained in their holds and forbore to fight; that Cyrus turned the waters of the Euphrates, which flowed through the city, into the lake; that the river being thus lowered. the enemy entered by its channel; that, from the negligence of the guards, the gates leading from the river to the city, were not shut; that the Median and Persian army thus entering, as if by stealth, designedly during the night of an annual Babylonish festival, Babylon was taken when it was not aware; that its princes, captains, and mighty men, reposing after their feast, and drunken, were suddenly slaughtered; and that Babylon, which had never been conquered before, was thus taken without resistance in a moment, unknown to the king and the inhabitants, who were not aware of their danger till one messenger ran to meet another, with the tidings that Babylon was taken, (Isa. xxi. 2; xlv. 1.; xliv. 27. Jer. 1. 38; li. 11, 27, 30, 36, 57). From being the "glory of kingdoms," Babylon is now the greatest of ruins; and after 2400 years it exhibits the precise scene defined in prophecy, (Isa. xiii. 19, &c.; xiv.

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22, &c., (Jer. 1. 13, 23, 39, &c.; li. 13, 26, &c.) Dread of evil spirits, and terror at the wild beasts among the ruins of Babylon, restrain the Arab from pitching his tent, and shepherds from making their folds there. The princely palaces and habitations of Babylon are now nothing but unshapely heaps of brick and rubbish; along the sides, or on the summits of which, are now caverns where porcupines creep, and owls and bats nestle; where "lions" find a den, and "jackalls, hyenas, and other noxious animals, an unmolested retreat ;" from which issues a loathsome smell;" and "the entrances to which are strewn with the bones of sheep and goats." Though utterly destroyed, "their houses are full of doleful creatures, and owls dwell there, and satyrs dance there. Wild beasts lie there, and cry in their desolate houses; it shall no more be inhabited for ever," &c. On the one side of the Euphrates, the canals being dry, and the crumbled bricks on an elevated surface exposed to the scorching sun; these "sun-burnt ruins" cover an "arid plain," and Babylon is a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert. On the other, the embankments of the river, and with them the vestiges of ruins over a large space, have been swept away; the plain is in general "marsby, and in many places inaccessible," especially after the annual overflowing of the Euphrates; no son of man doth pass thereby; the sea, or river, is come upon Babylon, she is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof." At that season, also, large deposits of the waters are left stagnant between the ruins, veryfying the threat, "I will make thee a possession for the bittern, and pools of water." The abundance of the country is gone as clean away as if the besom of destruction had swept it from north to south, (Isa. xiv. 23). There are, on the ruins of Birs Nimrod, or the temple of Belus, large fragments of brickwork that have been "completely molten," which must not only have been subjected to a heat "equal to that of the strongest furnace," but which being vitrified all around, "bear evident proof" that the ruin resembles what the Scriptures prophesied it should become-a burut mountain, (Jer. li. 25). It is still a relic of Babylon the great, for, though a mass of ruins, it is still 235 feet high. From the summit is a distinct view of the heaps which constitute all that now remains of ancient Babylon; a more complete picture of desolation could not well be imagined. The eye wanders over a barren desert, in which the ruins are nearly the only indication that it ever was inhabited. It is impossible not to be reminded how exactly the predictions of Isaiah and Jeremiah have been

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fulfilled, even in the appearance Babylon was to present, that she should become heaps; that her cities should be a desola tion, a dry land, and a wilderness. The walls of Babylon were so broad that, as ancient historians relate, six chariots could be driven on them abreast. They existed more than a thousand years after the prophecy was delivered. They were numbered among "the seven wonders of the world;" but now it can scarcely be determined with certainty that even a vestige of them remains. Modern travellers have totally failed in discovering any trace of the city walls, and say, that "the Divine predictions against Babylon have been so literally fulfilled in the appearance of the ruins, as to give the fullest signification to the words of Jeremiah: "the broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken."—Jer. li. 58.—Keith: “Fulfilled Prophecies."

TYRE is situated at the eastern extremity of the Mediterranean Sea, and to the north of Palestine; it was for a long period the greatest commercial city in the world. Its wealth and extensive commerce are described by various heathen authors, and are delineated in Ezekiel, chap. xxvi. xxvii. xxviii. contrasted with the varied changes and humiliations it would undergo, till it should become a "place whereon fishers would dry their nets." Tyre was the nursery of arts and science, and the city of perhaps the most industrious and active people ever known; and the barbarism of the Mahommedans, which finally completed the desolation of Tyre, did not commence till twelve centuries after the record of its destiny was written.-Keith: "Fulfilled Prophecies."

EGYPT was one of the most ancient and mighty of all the kingdoms of old. The imperishable pyramids, and the ruins of its cities and temples, together with the splendid tombs of the kings, are now the chief, and nearly the only indications of its ancient glory. The abundance and magnificence of these surpass description, as the number of its cities and towns in ancient times, stated by Herodotus at 20,000, exceeds belief. That eminent author, styled the father of history, describes Egypt as both by nature and art the most fruitful of all lands, and containing more wonders than all other regions. Egypt is still full of wonders, though its ancient cities and temples are now in ruins. These stupendous temples, abounding with massy and lofty columns, and profusely covered with hieroglyphics, have been largely described. God had declared by Ezekiel, chap. xxix. 14, 15; xxx. 12, 13: "They shall be a base kingdom. It shall be the basest of kingdoms; neither shall it exalt itself any more among the nations. The pride of her

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power shall come down. I will sell the land into the hand of the wicked; and I will make the land waste and all that is therein by the hand of strangers. I the Lord have spoken it. There shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt. The sceptre of Egypt shall depart away." Such has been, and is the state of Egypt, the basest of kingdoms, governed by strangers and slaves.-Keith: "Fulfilled Prophecies."

OF Ishmael, from whom the various tribes of Arabs claim their descent, it was said by the angel of the Lord before his birth, "He shall be a wild man; his hand shall be against every man, and every man's hand shall be against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren. I will make him fruitful and multiply him exceedingly; and I will make him a great nation." And unto his mother Hagar it was said, "I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude, (Gen. xvi. 10; 12; xvii. 20). The descendants of Ishmael cannot be numbered for multitude. The Arabs are universally known to be a wild people; their hand is against every man, and every man's hand is against them. They are "armed against mankind;" and the distinct marks of prophetic truth which the Arabs yet exhibit, are thus represented in the words of an eye witness. "On the smallest computation, such must have been the manners of these people for more than three thousand years. Thus, in all things, verifying the prediction given of Ishmael at his birth, that he in his posterity, should be a wild man, and always continue to be so, though they shall dwell for ever in the presence of their brethren; and that an acute and active people surrounded for ages by polished and luxurious nations, should from their earliest to their latest times, be still found a wild people dwelling in the presence of all their brethren, as we may call the surrounding nations, unsubdued and unchangeable, is indeed a standing miracle-one of those mysterious facts which establish the truth of prophecy." On a review of the prophecies, relative to Ninevah, Babylon, Tyre, Egypt, Judea, and all the adjoining territories, it is a certain fact, which can admit of no disputation, and which needs no argument to support it, but which rests on the testimony of unbelievers no less than of Christians, that the fate of all these cities and countries, in reference to their past history and present state, demonstrates the truth of the prophecies concerning them, and that all these prophecies, ratified by the events, give the most decisive proof that those holy men of old, who all testified of Jesus, spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. No word can be more sure, in regard to past and present things than